The renewed marketing jive: "customer"

"You got to be kidding" was my first idea this morning. Belgacom, Belgium's biggest telecom provider (the ex-monopolist) is said to 'bow for the customer'. A big leap, I would say, as they leapfrog from 'customer disinterest' to 'customer curtsy' (Belgacom IS a lady), skipping the phase of customer centricity.

However, big disappointment, as Belgacom in their press contacts -or the media in their sensation craving- have created a headline that has nothing to do with customer thinking whatsoever: the big idea is to 'improve' the quality of complaint management. Meaning that the telephonic helpdesk will be 'open' till 10 PM 7/7 and if the technician needs to come by, you don't need to take the day off, as they will be working during the evenings also.

Big misunderstanding.

This is an example of what I call 'termabuse'. Using 'customer oriented' as descriptor for these changes is the same as laughing your customers into the face. Customers that are customer centric DO NOT have massive complaints. Managing complaints is one thing, but putting it under the umbrella of customer thinking is several bridges too far. To be clear: there is always something ready to go wrong in your product, service, delivery or use. Nothing's perfect. And that is OK. But customer centric brands get credits from their customer when things go wrong. Because they can go wrong and they have noticed that when they do go wrong, the brand is helpfull and stays customer centric. Non-customer-centric brands or companies are not helpfull. Not before and not after the moment things go wrong. 

Customer centricity is adapting your system to reduce complaints, not changing your system to cope with the increasing amount of complaints.

Big stress.

That will be the result. Big stress. For the 'agents' manning the Belgacom call center. They will have to work longer, work harder and work more days. Complaints will be more fierce and more frequent; Belgacom just gave the customers the permission to be unhappy and to complain. They've just admitted that things are going wrong and that the only thing they will do about it is foresee more resources to handle the complaints.

1 minute.

The same day that Belgacom announced their 'fundamental' changes, my colleague received a letter from another 'ex-'monopolist Electrabel. The letter stated that Electrabel wants to be more customer centric. Therefore they have improved their ... yes: call-center. All calls will be handled within 1 minute. Poor call center agents. Because call centers are evaluated on the time they need to handle your problem,  not  necessarily on the quality of the solution they provide. 

But finally, what are you interested in? To have a good product and service to start with. To have a brand that offers relevance and gives you recognition as a customer. And if things would happen to go wrong, you 'just' want a decent solution. Not more people to handle the complaint but more people to create relevance in the first place.

That would be a good start for customer centricity...